Run to Velký Rozsutec

So... I really need a proper sleep and at least one whole-day-mountain run to regain energy for all the exciting but really hard projects we currently prepare ourselves for. So we (me, Bára and my ultradog Čenda) are jumping into the car and go 300km east to the beautiful Orava region in Slovakia. We arrive late in the evening and the lack of computers finally allows me to go to bed before midnight after many long months. What a luxury feeling, to sleep when it is dark outside! :-O I sleep like 11 hours in a row.. But in the morning the weather is not good at all for the sky-run high in Western Tatra mountains. Thunderstorms with strong lightning all around, ridges covered in thick fog. So we are running lower in northern part of Chočské vrchy mountains. Nevermind, I love this forgotten part of Slovakia as well. But I wanted to get a bit higher today. Nevermind...

Late in the afternoon we are heading home to Czech Republic, near town Dolný Kubín, we got caught in a car by a really huge and wonderful thunderstorm. "It is really strong, definitely strong enough to shake all normal tourists down from the mountains" I am telling myself. We are already a bit tired, but... Quick consideration in my head. "That could pan out" I am telling myself a while later and instead of going home, we drive to a small village of Štefanová (600m above see level)), which lies hunkered down under the wet and foggy Malá Fatra mountains...

It is still a bit rainy and very foggy when we unexpectedly start to partly hike and partly run up at 6 p.m. from Štefanová. I love going up when everyone is going down. First we take the yellow marked path to Vrchpožiar saddle (750m) and from here we follow the at the beginning very muddy and slippery green marked path through old beech tree forest.

We quickly get the splendid canyon of Horné Diery and continue on the blue marked path through the system of ladders towards the Medzirozsutce saddle. I really want to be at the summit before the sun sets. If there will be the sun at all, of course...

Shortly before the saddle, when we get off the canyon, I already know, that "not being lazy" will pay off today. Beautiful view towards Malý Rozsutec (1344m) is luring me, of course, but sorry bro, not today, it is too late...

Our aim for today is his bigger brother, incredible limestone Velký Rozsutec peak (1609m). We don´t stop in the saddle and turn right and start to follow the steep forest path on a very nice ridge leading towards the summit.

Very soon we see "him". We are fast enough. But I can feel my calfs a bit, to be honest. All food and water was left in the car, we don´t need it for such a small hike, but I have cca 7kg backpack anyway, with 2 Sony cameras and lenses (A7S II + 55mm F1,8 Zeiss and A6500 + 16-35 F4 Zeiss and Sigma ART 35mm F1,4 + Novoflex adapter), then another Olympus camera and several lenses, which Bara got from Olympus CZ for some testing and on top of that I carry 2 pairs of brand new running shoes from Montura, which we want to photograph before they get dirty. Which they would down in the wet muddy valley trails.
I like the pain of running with weight, it always means well deserved day. So I am taking the backpack as a nice little "training tool" for the upcoming running adventure in Norway in late August. There you have to run with heavier backpack than what you usually have in a race or normal training...

The views start to amaze me like so many times before. Today it is so special. After a rainy day and huge thunder storm just a while ago, here we are in a sunny warm evening with absolutely no people around. Exactly how I like it...

Bára is here for the first time, but I guess she likes what she sees right now ;-)

Running these narrow paths is always a pure joy for me. In the past, being focussed mainly on martial arts and later climbing, I would nevery say how much I will enjoy trailrunning one day... I still love both, but last 2 years mountain running and ski mountaineering became my number one activities, that´s for sure... I love the lightness and speed and freedom of moving anywhere I want...

We are at the top just before the sun starts to set down behind the horizont... Exactly as I imagined it in the car in the strongest rain I have seen this year...

Bára finally at the top of this beautiful mountain, after so many years of just looking at it on the way to other mountains of Slovakia...

I quickly take a few photos and film shots... The surrounding mountains are pure magic... So small, but so gorgeous...

The valley of Štefanová village 1000m under us is still full of fog, but up here, the sun is shining like if it never rained here before. I simply love Slovakia, deeply, as well as Norway and my home mountains Rychleby. This is one of the very few certainties which I have and WANT to have in my life... :-)

Here I learned so much about mountains years ago, here I countless times got so much energy for going for all of my dreams. Endless inspiration. No matter how big is the chaos in my head, here I can stop my busy mind for a while and enjoy the silence...

I guess that someone quite likes it here too... ;-)

The reward of doing things differently is sometimes really beautiful. Never hesitate to go into the mountains. Even if it was foggy here, I would be happy too, I love all kinds of weather. But to have the mountains just for the two of us is nice bonus and a small mirracle, in the middle of the summer season, here at the top of one of the most beautiful mountains in Europe.

After the sun has set, I am standing on my favorite exposed boulder and I do not rush down at all. I love to move in the mountains and deep forests in the darkness of the night. Bára disagrees a bit, because there are many bears in the woods around us, but I know there is no need to rush. We are safe, animals are our friends, and we shall learn so much from them. After I slept many nights in a tent among polar bears in the winter Arctics some years ago, I lost the fear from our cute carpathian brown bears...

Rocky brothers Malý Rozsutec (1344m) and Velký Rozsutec (1609m) from Kraviarské mountain from previous autumn trip to Malá Fatra mountains.

I feel deep satisfaction that evening. I am really happy that I discovered trailrunning 3 years ago. I move in the mountains since my very early childhood. I used to hike "long distances" many weeks in a row with heavy backpacks even before. But my perspective about "distance" has totally changed after my first ultramarathon "Jesenická 60" in June 2014. Thanks for the challenge that spring Bara! It was like a mirracle... After years on not running at all, I was able to run 60km race after only 5 weeks of training! Thanks to the excitement, challenge (to try to survie ultramarathon) and also thanks to the fact, that I bought my firts "barefoot" shoes, which made running so much more fun with almost now pain at all. But more about the shoes any my beginnings later ;-) Most important now is the fact that we are able to run long distances, because this allows us to react very spontaneously. Allows us to move fast in the mountains... And this is what counts.

Time to go down, long drive home ahead of me. I have incredibly much work on upcoming little scandinavian expedition, on my new running ultramarathon Zapomenuté hory which we organize in my home mountains this year, and on many materials for my sponsors and also for my new webpage, which is just opened by this first very simple article... Thanks for stopping by! I can´t wait for all what is coming... ;-)